[argosant]

After a lot of ruminating I have done about PO, I've realized that no amount of preparation I do is likely to be able to save me from death from future calamities. If I become a proficient outdoor survival expert, I could easily still be wiped out by a nuke in an apocalyptic resource war. So much variability.

As such, I accept death. I will live out what little life I have left, and accept being overwhelmed and slaughtered when the shit hits the fan.

One thing I am noticing a lot among people in-the-know about peak oil is a huge surge of people with many different rigid, dogmatic ideologies about how they believe things should be. Preachy environmentalist types bantering on about the evils of our modern ways, nutcases hell-bent on teaching the supposed "virtues" of "community" in the upcoming horrors. This scares the hell out of me because I am an highly individualistic person who is anti-dogma of any kind. "Community" is a fuckin' buzz word right now and people are speaking so much of it. Moral arrogance is rife. I think it's horseshit; I hate "community" as I see it as synonymous with totalitarianism and all other nasty things about human nature. Spare me from it; I think I will actually take death instead once things finally come around and go nuts.

[PenultimateManStanding]

yeah, I know what you mean. I feel the same as you do, evidently. My thoughts are that it will be gradual and it isn't going to kill us all, but if it's worse than Jack says, then it's sayonara, that's all.

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', 'P')reachy environmentalist types bantering on about the evils of our modern ways.

[argosant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JPL', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', 'P')reachy environmentalist types bantering on about the evils of our modern ways.

[PenultimateManStanding]

moral self-righteousness is a human habit. rising above it is something that I have done very well and all you dogs still stuck in the muck of moral self-righteousness are not only dogs, but you are pigs as well! you should learn to be like me!

[argosant]

Ah yes, the paradox of being against moral self-righteousness.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', 'A')h yes, the paradox of being against moral self-righteousness.

[PrairieMule]

How long have you been aware about peakoil?

[argosant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'H')ow long have you been aware about peakoil?

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'N')o point in going out without trying.

[argosant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', ' ')I should point out, though, that I have seeds, guns, water buckets, etc., just in case. No point in going out without trying.

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', '
')Very true. I've spent the bulk of preparation time learning how to live in the wilderness.

[argosant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JPL', '
')Ahh.. I think I understand, now. You really ARE prepared.

I presume it's a given that you don't have any young children right now?

JPL

[Aaron]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JPL', '
')Ahh.. I think I understand, now. You really ARE prepared.

I presume it's a given that you don't have any young children right now?

JPL

[argosant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', '
')Then who will consume your rotting corpse after you're killed in the defense of the dilapidated hovel you lived in?

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'r')ich or should I say ripe.

[GregEllis]

You laugh now, but if the WORSE-case scenario comes true, cannibalism would not be too far-fetched, given the imbalance between the amount of livestock and wild game, versus the number of humans far beyond ecological carrying capacity.

But that is the WORSE case folks. There are any number of potential futures that we might be in for depending on countless factors we cannot predict. Kunstler should have appreciated the unpredictability of the future, especially when pitted against the desperation and craftiness of the world's most adaptive and cunning animal.

Don't accept fatalism, my friend. Maybe you will die. But until that happens, chill out. We make things worse by fantasizing about the worst. Anything can happen. And that is not "magical thinking" like the dystopians like Kunstler purport. Sure the carrying capacity is a major deal, especially in the U.S., which has a population WAAAAY too high to avoid die-off. So whaddya do? Well, I'm an American, but I am two months away from immigrating to Canada to begin further preparations. If the shit hits the fan, it probably won't right now. So get off your ass and start moving (literally). If you are in a poplace area with poor natural resources, get up and move. I did.

Oh, and have children for goodness sake. There has never been a good time to have children. Every generation has either had to experience hardships or been in terror of some doomsday or hellish possible future. Some in the 50s and 60s said they didn't want to have children because they didn't want them to die in a nuclear war. Bet those born children are glad their parents had them.

Having children makes alot of things alot more important. I'm speaking from pre- and post-experience.

Besides, society will have to go on. If you are a good man, the future will need good men of sturdy character who have the inner strength not to revert to savagry and build communities of hope for the future. If ever there was a noble struggle for those who have been itching for the good fight, or the battle for saving as much of our civilization as possible, it is now my friend. It is now. Make PO friends. Find them nearby. Meet with them. Strategize. Have a family. Teach those children the skills they will need as if fun and games and enjoying nature without telling them about PO. If it comes, they will have at least been able to enjoy the last vestiges of childhood and will have skills that their peers could only pray for to guide them. But NEVER EVER tell them beforehand. Because it is one of many possibilities.

Just some thoughts.

I'm not big on fiction, but I thought the LOTR movies were well timed.

Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

In the story, the army is marching against an enemy who is many times more powerful. So much so that they are basically marching to their deaths. But they decide to anyway. This scene has been played out in real history before. The Battle of Thermopylae coming first to mind. These people would rather fight a lost cause for a principle they consider more important than their lives. Or they would rather die free than live in submission. If you are going to die, wouldn't you rather die for something you believe in, than kill yourself or die with a whimper? And if there is nothing in your life you would be willing to throw your body in the breach for, then, well, that is the thing you should work on between now and doomsday.

But that is me. Only you can decide what terms you want to live life on. Good luck!

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JPL', '
')Ahh.. I think I understand, now. You really ARE prepared.

I presume it's a given that you don't have any young children right now?

JPL

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('argosant', 'O')ne thing I am noticing a lot among people in-the-know about peak oil is a huge surge of people with many different rigid, dogmatic ideologies about how they believe things should be. Preachy environmentalist types bantering on about the evils of our modern ways, nutcases hell-bent on teaching the supposed "virtues" of "community" in the upcoming horrors. This scares the hell out of me because I am an highly individualistic person who is anti-dogma of any kind. "Community" is a fuckin' buzz word right now and people are speaking so much of it. Moral arrogance is rife. I think it's horseshit; I hate "community" as I see it as synonymous with totalitarianism and all other nasty things about human nature. Spare me from it; I think I will actually take death instead once things finally come around and go nuts.